LESBIAN ORDAINED EPISCOPAL PRIEST

By PETER STEINFELS,

Published: June 6, 1991

WASHINGTON, June 5—
In an action that is certain to provoke new debate over homosexuality and the clergy, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington today ordained to the priesthood a woman openly living in a lesbian relationship.

The ordination, occurring in a denomination that holds a particularly prestigious place in American society, comes as several major Christian denominations are struggling with questions about homosexuality, Scripture and sexual relations outside of marriage.

Although the woman ordained, Elizabeth L. Carl, was not the first acknowledged homosexual to be made a priest in the Episcopal Church, her ordination was noteworthy for the candor of both the candidate and church officials about her sexual relationship.

Next month the General Convention of the Episcopal Church is to reconsider a 1979 resolution against ordaining sexually active homosexuals. Presbyterians in Turmoil

On Thursday, the annual General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) opens committee hearings on a special church report written by a church-appointed commission that rejects traditional strictures against having sex outside of marriage for all believers. A wave of opposition to the report has built up in the 2.9-million-member church. The report recommends acceptance of sex between homosexuals and between unmarried heterosexuals if it is "responsible," "mutual" and "caring."

The ordination of Ms. Carl, at the Church of the Epiphany where she is an assistant minister, clearly surprised and upset the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning.

In a statement released by his office in New York City, the Presiding Bishop noted that the church had been planning to take up the issue of ordaining homosexuals, but that "events such as the ordination in the Diocese of Washington can trigger the sort of attention that may make positive dialogue more difficult and polarize the church."

He added: "When I was first informed by the Bishop of Washington on Tuesday, June 4, of the ordination scheduled for June 5, I asked that he reconsider for the good of the whole church and the impending discussion at General Convention."

The Washington Bishop, Ronald H. Haines, has not been an ardent campaigner for ordination of gay church members . In a statement issued Tuesday, he expressed the ambivalence and soul-searching that is common among members of the moderate-to-liberal Protestant denominations and among some sectors of the Roman Catholic Church as well.

Bishop Haines said that Ms. Carl, 44 years old, "has for a number of years openly lived in a loving and intimate relationship with another woman" with whom she has made a lifelong and monogamous commitment.

The Bishop said: "The ordination of one whose life style involves sexual relations outside of marriage troubles me greatly. There are, in my view, scriptural passages and historical teachings of the church that appear to be at odds with ordination of homosexuals and that cannot easily be answered or put aside."

But when a candidate has persistently displayed "strength, leadership, spirituality, intellect, moral understanding and commitment to Christ," the Bishop said, "reserveration regarding the candidate's sexuality and life style" should not be an absolute bar to ordination. Protests at the Ceremony

Not long after the ordination began at the small church amid office buildings in downtown Washington, Bishop Haines reached the point in the ritual where the Bishop must ask, "If any of you know any impediment or crime because of which we should not proceed, come forward now and make it known." At that point the Rev. James West, a priest with 50 years of service in the Washington diocese, came forward and declared that Ms. Carl's lesbianism was an impediment that "prevents total commitment to Jesus."

He was followed by TiaJuana Rountree, a member of Calvary Episcopal Church in Washington, who declared that Ms. Carl's sexual style of life made her unsuitable for the priesthood.

Bishop Haines responded that the objectors had not presented any information that he had not "prayerfully and fearfully" considered. He then asked the congregation, "Is it your will that Elizabeth be ordained a priest?"

The congregation answered resoundingly, "It is."

The ceremony went on without incident and afterward there was the pealing of church bells in celebration.

Bishop Haines, at a news conference after the ceremony, responded to Bishop Browning's concern that the ordination might polarize the denomination on the eve of its convention. He said the ordination date did not have any link to the convention. He said Ms. Carl would have been ordained sooner but that she was seeking a parish position until last month. Ms. Carl did not speak at the news conference.

A spokeswoman for the Washington Diocese said no photographs of Ms. Carl would be permitted at the ordination ceremony.

The Episcopal Church has never prohibited the ordination of homosexuals but has expected them, like other unmarried candidates, to abide by the church's condemnation of homosexual activity or of having sex outside marriage. Ordination by Newark Bishop

Bishop John S. Spong of Newark defied this policy in 1989 when he ordained the Rev. J. Robert Williams, who lived openly as a gay man. Bishop Spong later had to suspend Father Williams for dismissive comments that the priest made about monogamy and Mother Teresa's celibacy. Possibly referring to that episode, Bishop Haines said that Ms. Carl "does not seek to use her ordained ministry as a public platform to advance any perceived cause relating to human sexuality."

Last year the Episcopal House of Bishops censured Bishop Spong for the ordination. Bishop Spong argued that the 1979 General Convention resolution was only advisory and that he was strictly bound only by the church's canon law, which gives local dioceses ultimate authority over such decisions.

In 1977, an avowed lesbian Episcopal candidate, the Rev. Ellen M. Barrett, was ordained by Bishop Paul Moore Jr. of New York.

Proposals to ordain homosexuals have been made repeatedly in several denominations. Bishop Haines said that he did not advocate or recommend a life style involving sexual relations outside of marriage "as a model for the church's ordained ministry." He said he also recognized the hurt and disappointment that his action would cause to "those in the church with differing views, including some of my fellow bishops."

But although Bishop Haines said that he took the Scriptures seriously as an authoritative guide for the church, he also said that biblical passages "were writen in one historical context and must be applied in another, and therein is our struggle." Woman Raised as a Methodist

The woman at the center of today's event began her journey toward ordination in 1985, a decade after the Episcopal Church began ordaining women to the priesthood. Raised as a Methodist in Houston but confirmed in the Episcopal Church while a college student, she had a bachelor's degree in comparative literature from Occidental College in Los Angeles and a graduate degree in library science from Catholic University in Washington, which led to 16 years' employment at the Library of Congress.

Last year she earned a master of divinity degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She had been a pastoral intern in two Washington-area parishes before becoming an assistant minister at the Church of the Epiphany.